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Scheduling, planning and follow-through. Some questions
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Posted by MadaboutDana
May 26, 2014 at 10:37 AM
I suppose that’s what I like about DayMap - it could be used as a GTD app (you could name your ‘projects’ according to the usual GTD labels, and it already has an Inbox), or you can use it to run multiple to-do lists as I do (e.g. using project names like home, work, personal, stuff etc.). But then you’ve also got a calendar at the bottom of the screen for anything that has a particular time (or rather, day: it doesn’t yet do times of day!). Also - a very nice touch - you can minimise ‘projects’ (could equally well be described as lists, categories, folders) that aren’t active, whereupon they hinge down so the label is vertical rather than horizontal. Still there, but dozing, as it were.
Major weaknesses of this still very young app: no integration with Calendar, Contacts, Reminders. But I’m sure that’s coming!
The sharing thing, Ken, is also an interesting point: Trello does that very well, of course (and also has a very nice iCal function).
But the DayMap interface is excellent. I’m looking forward to developments!
Cheers,
Bill
Posted by jamesofford
May 27, 2014 at 02:02 PM
Folks:
I knew that I would get some good discussion from the members of this group. Thank you all.
Dr. Andrus: Thanks for the Google Calendar suggestion. We already have several different lab calendars for reserving equipment, collaborating on some projects etc. And I have my own Google Calendar. I tie both of these into Busycal on the Mac and Project Informant on my iPad. I am working on using these better to schedule my own work.
Paul: Indeed, part of the issue is cultural, and learning how to “get” the cues from the lab folks. Part of the problem is that there is a significant “I’ll get this done sometime.” feel in the lab. People do little planning beyond the next experiment. That doesn’t work for me.
Madabout Dana: I like the idea of paper for doing some of this. I am not sure if a Bullet Journal is the approach, but I am trying to not rely entirely on software solutions. Even with the widespread ability to sync to clouds and connect in by Wi-Fi, I like to have a low tech backup. I generally take notes in meetings and discussions by using a paper notebook. For stuff that I need to be able to find again later, I will enter the information in a file. Then I index that file. Right now I use Devonthink Office Pro for this. One of the reasons for my reliance on paper is that I find people bringing computers, tablets and smartphones into meetings disruptive. So I don’t. I bring paper instead.
Chris Murtland: Checklists are a good idea that I haven’t put in place. I do have canned protocols for things, and when I am setting up an assay or experiment I print out the protocol and keep notes on the protocol. I then move all of this to a separate lab notebook. This is kind of like the checklist idea.
Alexander: The idea of time-logging is a good one. One of the problems that I have is that I don’t have a good handle on how long stuff takes me. So it is hard to schedule a day. I am going to be keeping track of my time and then use that to develop standard times for stuff. If I know that one experiment that I want to do will take me 4 hours, and another one will take 6, then I don’t want to schedule them both on the same day. This is partly where my planning falls apart.
I spoke to my boss, and she and I agreed that we would set up a monthly meeting where we will discuss my projects over the previous month, and what progress I made, and we will also discuss plans for the month upcoming. That will help. I used to tell teams that I was leading “Deadlines motivate.” I will be working with the boss to put some deadlines in place for me.
As to tools: I am currently trying out Pagico. I like the ability to put things together as projects, then schedule them. And the Dashboard is a nice visual tool. Daymap also looks good, but I am trying to curb my CRIMPing. I may give Daymap a try if Pagico doesn’t work out. As I said above, I am also using Google Calendar Busycal and Pocket Informant for scheduling. I am also using Omnioutliner for doing some planning. In the next little while I am going to be keeping track of my time and putting together some standard timings for stuff. Kind of like a dentist or a lawyer. This will make planning somewhat easier.
Thanks to everyone for their comments, and I will try to update everyone as I see what works and what doesn’t.
Jim